Minister of Communications and Multimedia Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak wants Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to be brave and keep fighting the political barrage as the premier turns 63 today. He said there are many Malaysians who supported the prime minister but wished to remain silent because they may feel it would be pointless to argue about something that will never be resolved. “These Malaysians have confidence in your leadership and will continue to stand behind you. Keep the faith and rest assured you are not alone. Happy birthday Dato’ Sri, stay brave, and keep fighting because we are there with you,” he said in his blog post sskeruak.blogspot.my today. He said no one can deny that it has been a very challenging 40 years of Najib’s political career, especially the last 10 years since 2006, when former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad decided he has had enough of retirement and made a comeback to the Malaysian political scene.

Salleh said any person would have given up by now rather than endure 10 years of constant barraging from Mahathir. “At first Mahathir pestered Najib to oust Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and when Najib disagreed, and instead openly expressed support for the Prime Minister (Abdullah), Mahathir attacked him. “And then, after Najib took over as Prime Minister three years later, Mahathir continued to attack him on all sorts of issues, the latest, of course, being the 1MDB,” he said. Salleh said Najib is the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia but probably the first to suffer such harassment from an ex-Prime Minister. “Nowhere else in the world does this happen where an ex-Prime Minister demonstrates utter disrespect and contempt for a sitting Prime Minister. “And this is not something new but something that Mahathir has been perpetuating over the last 10 years and against two Prime Ministers,” he said. -Bernama